Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 8,363 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. decreased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 23.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,537 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 8,363 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $7,448,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tranquility Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the first quarter worth $277,000. Kercheville Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $325,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 109.4% in the 1st quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 268 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Cache Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,542,000. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 40.9% during the 1st quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 14,820 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after acquiring an additional 4,301 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $586.45 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $62.65 and a one year high of $799.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $518.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.01 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong quarterly results reinforced the AI-driven memory shortage theme, which has lifted Western Digital along with other memory stocks. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to highlight strong AI memory demand, rising estimate revisions, and favorable supply-demand dynamics for WDC. Micron’s Robust Q3 Results Raise Investor Attention on These 3 Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports of SK Hynix planning a Nasdaq listing on July 10 add more attention to the broader memory ecosystem, but the direct impact on WDC is unclear. Is the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) a Buy Before July 10?
• Negative Sentiment: After the sector’s big rally, memory and semiconductor stocks are pulling back as investors take profits and worry that memory and storage costs may have gotten ahead of fundamentals. MU, SNDK, WDC: 3 Key Reasons Why Memory Stocks Are Falling Today
• Negative Sentiment: Broader tech-sector weakness is weighing on WDC alongside other chip names, adding to the selloff in the group. Semiconductor stocks retreat over worries about memory costs

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Fox Advisors lowered Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.